For fire departments
Visilence for authorities having jurisdiction
Contractors who perform inspection, testing and maintenance in your jurisdiction can choose to show you their work here: who they are, what they are licensed and certified to do, which buildings they service, and when each was last inspected. This page explains how to get access and what you can do once you have it.
It is free for fire departments — no account fee, no per-seat charge, and nothing to purchase, now or later.
Getting access
Access is by invitation, and every invitation is addressed to an email address on your department’s own verified domain — the address you already use for department business. We confirm that domain against your department’s official website before anyone can be invited to it.
There are two ways in. If a colleague already has access, ask them to invite you from the Department screen; you will have an email within a minute. If nobody at your department has access yet, email rob@visilence.com with your department name and a link to the page on your website that lists your staff addresses.
There is no self-service sign-up, and that is deliberate. Contractors are sharing records with a named public authority. Letting anyone claim to be that authority would make the whole arrangement worthless to them.
Signing in
- Go to visilence.com/ahj — this page. Bookmark it; it is the only address you need.
- Choose Sign in, and use the exact email address your invitation was sent to. A personal address will not work, and neither will a different address at the same department.
- Confirm the address the first time, the way you would for any account. That confirmation is what proves the invitation reached the right person, which is why we don’t use a link you could forward.
After that you land in the portal directly. If your department has invited you and a neighboring department has too, both appear — one account, one sign-in.
What you’ll see
Contractors
Companies that have chosen to make themselves visible to your jurisdiction, with the licenses, insurance and certifications each one has documented. A status badge summarizes what is current and what has lapsed. This is not a list of every contractor working in your area, and it is not a recommendation from us — a company’s absence tells you only that it has not opted in.
Buildings
Every building a contractor has confirmed your department governs: the address, who services it, when it was last serviced, and when the next service is due. You can see this without asking anyone’s permission. It is not a list of every building in your jurisdiction — only the ones a participating contractor has told us about — and a service date is the contractor’s record, not an inspection result.
Notices
If your jurisdiction sends overdue-inspection notices through Visilence, this is which ones were answered and which are still open. Nothing here sends or escalates anything.
Department
Who from your department has access, who has been invited and hasn’t answered yet, and the form to invite someone else.
Asking to see records
Service dates are open to you. The records behind them — inspection reports and the deficiencies found — belong to the contractor and their customer, and you ask for those.
On any building, choose Request records and say briefly why you’re asking. The reason is optional, but it matters more than it looks: a contractor who sees a bare request for one address has to guess whether something is wrong, and a request with a sentence of context gets answered far faster.
The contractor can share that one building, share every building they service in your jurisdiction, or decline. Once shared, the building opens up and stays open. One request per building at a time — after you ask, the button becomes a status rather than a second chance.
What you can and can't do here
You can read, and you can ask. You cannot edit a contractor’s compliance record, close out a deficiency, or mark an inspection as accepted — Visilence is not a filing system for your department, and a record that a regulator could alter would be worth less to everyone.
Every time you open a building’s records it is logged with your name, and the contractor can see that log. We tell them so, and we’re telling you so: it runs both ways, and it is the reason contractors are willing to share in the first place.
Nothing here is a compliance determination. Visilence reports what contractors have documented. Whether a building is in compliance is your call, made under your code — not something this platform asserts, scores or ranks.
Adding and removing people
Anyone in your department with access can invite a colleague from the Department screen — name, email and title. Only addresses on your verified domain are accepted, so the most anyone can do is add someone at your own department. Invitations expire after 30 days and can be withdrawn before they’re accepted.
Everyone at a department sees exactly the same thing; there are no permission levels to configure. To remove someone who has left, email rob@visilence.com — we’ll end their access the same day.
Questions we get asked
Does this replace our inspection records or our filing system?
No. It is a window into what contractors have documented, not a system of record for your department. Nothing you do here files anything.
Why is a building we know about missing?
Because no contractor has confirmed to us that your department governs it. That may mean their customer uses a company that isn’t on Visilence, or that the building’s jurisdiction hasn’t been confirmed yet. It never means the building is compliant, and it never means it doesn’t exist.
Can we see contractors who haven't opted in?
No, and there is no count of them either. We can only show what companies have chosen to share; publishing a tally of everyone else would be reporting on businesses that never agreed to be reported on.
Is this really free?
Yes, permanently, for authorities. Contractors pay for the platform. A department that had to pay to look would look less, which defeats the purpose.
What happens to the data if we stop using it?
Nothing of yours is held here beyond your name, department and access log. The records belong to the contractors, who can export everything we hold about them at any time.
Questions, or need access for your department? Email rob@visilence.com.
Visilence shows only what participating contractors have chosen to share with your jurisdiction. It is not a complete record of contractors or buildings in your area, and absence from this portal means nothing about a business’s compliance or a building’s status.